What Next for the Bailout?

George Stephanopoulos reports on the ABC blog Political Radar that Congress is looking at 4 different options on how to proceed:

1. Muscle the bill through in its current form. Depending on what the markets do today (they lost 700 points yesterday) the thinking is some Republicans on the fence might be frightened into supporting the bailout as is.

2. Let the Senate take up the measure first. There seems to be broader support in the Senate (2/3 of them aren't up for re-election) and the thinking is that if passed by the Senate, it would give some cover to lawmakers in the House.

3. Make small changes to the bill like allowing the FDIC to insure all transactions not just those to $100,000. The thinking among economists is that this might unfreeze the markets.

4. Get more Democrats on board by adding some of the things removed from the package at the behest of Republican House members. This would almost certainly include the ACORN handout as well as empowering bankruptcy judges to set terms on new loans for homeowners.

None of these options are very palatable except perhaps allowing the Senate to take the lead. However, there are a lot of GOP congressman who oppose this bill in principle and even if the Senate were to step up and bite the bullet, it is doubtful they would come on board.

However, supporters of the bailout only need 12 votes to switch. Such a small number might encourage lawmakers to take the Senate route if only because a combination of Republicans and Democrats in the House who see how jittery the markets are if this bailout fails might be convinced to vote for it against their better judgement.

It should be another wild day on Wall Street...

George Stephanopoulos reports on the ABC blog Political Radar that Congress is looking at 4 different options on how to proceed:

1. Muscle the bill through in its current form. Depending on what the markets do today (they lost 700 points yesterday) the thinking is some Republicans on the fence might be frightened into supporting the bailout as is.

2. Let the Senate take up the measure first. There seems to be broader support in the Senate (2/3 of them aren't up for re-election) and the thinking is that if passed by the Senate, it would give some cover to lawmakers in the House.

3. Make small changes to the bill like allowing the FDIC to insure all transactions not just those to $100,000. The thinking among economists is that this might unfreeze the markets.

4. Get more Democrats on board by adding some of the things removed from the package at the behest of Republican House members. This would almost certainly include the ACORN handout as well as empowering bankruptcy judges to set terms on new loans for homeowners.

None of these options are very palatable except perhaps allowing the Senate to take the lead. However, there are a lot of GOP congressman who oppose this bill in principle and even if the Senate were to step up and bite the bullet, it is doubtful they would come on board.

However, supporters of the bailout only need 12 votes to switch. Such a small number might encourage lawmakers to take the Senate route if only because a combination of Republicans and Democrats in the House who see how jittery the markets are if this bailout fails might be convinced to vote for it against their better judgement.